Tennessee Man Wins AARP Spelling Bee

It took 68 rounds until someone won the 2010 AARP National Spelling Bee June 19th in Cheyenne.

A really big ocular-related word a Knoxville, TN man correctly spelled in Cheyenne over the weekend earned him the win at the 2010 AARP National Spelling Bee.

That was Scott Firebaugh correctly spelling keratomileusis. The word's definition is a keratoplasty, in which a piece of the cornea is removed, frozen, shaped to correct refractive error, and reinserted.

The competition started with a 100-word written spelling test, which narrowed the field from 48 to 16. It then took 68 rounds to crown the champ, with the words becoming more difficult.

Spellers were allowed to miss three words before being knocked out of the contest. Runner-up Robert Moy from New York too his third strike on the word myoinositol.

The AARP National Spelling Bee was created in 1996 by a group of Wyoming members who wanted to keep their minds sharp. It's open to anyone age 50 and over, and registration is already open for next year's contest. Words in this year's bee cam from the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

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